Working with big companies is not like working with small companies. The reasons are obvious of course, and it’s probably why large organisations try – and often fail – to engender a fast-moving and entrepreneurial culture.

Big companies have deeper pockets, so the rewards are bigger, but you also need to factor in the risks, the processes, the number of people involved in working with you, because they’re all deeper as well.

It simply takes longer to get things done.

A few years ago I worked in the tech security space, getting case studies written up with customers. The smaller the customer, the quicker the sign-off, the easier the process. It’s a joy working for smaller companies that can take decisions quickly. The downside is that their ‘logo’ carries less weight than a ‘battleship’ blue chip that takes you what seems like an eternity to turn around.

Make sure you have a good balance of small, medium and large sales opportunities in your sales pipeline. The big deals are great when they come in, but you can’t afford to have your hopper full of big slow-moving deals that can easily get stuck and leave you flapping in the breeze. If you can make your number from the small and medium deals, then the big one, when it comes in, is a rather large layer of icing on your cake.